Indonesian President accepts invitation to attend PNG’s 50th Anniversary

President of Indonesia, His Excellency Prabowo Subianto, has conveyed his Letter of Confirmation through the Resident Indonesian Ambassador advising of his attendance of Papua New Guinea's 50th Independence Anniversary in September this year.

Indonesian Ambassador to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, HE Andriana Supandy, accompanied by his diplomatic staff and Defense Attaché, were on hand to personally deliver President Subianto Prabowo’s Letter of Confirmation to Prime Minister James Marape yesterday at his office.

Marape stated that Papua New Guinea cannot take the bilateral relations with Indonesia for granted as PNG has expanded relations in trade and investment, downstream processing of oil palm and nickel, high quality technical education scholarships and people-to-people relations.

He informed the delegation that Indonesia is PNG’s most important bilateral partner and a brother-sister nation adjacent to PNG.

“Let’s not take Indonesia for granted; they are the bigger economy next door to us. They’ve offered trade, people-to-people relationships including scholarships for which over 2,000 educational spaces of all types have been offered to us,” he said.

Mr Marape said over the years, PNG has seen Indonesia from a trade standpoint, emphasizing the country's big market with a 1.4 trillion-dollar economy.

He said Indonesia is a frontier in the region in downstream processing in nickel and palm oil, and they are now frontiers in shifting towards being a manufacturing hub.

"It’s a good economy for us to develop a rapport."